Bone analysis provides window into lives of Montreal's Irish potato famine migrants
CBC
After analyzing bones found during work on a light-rail station in Montreal, an archaeological lab is revealing new details about the lives of Irish migrants who died there in 1847.
The 2019 archeological dig in Pointe-Sainte-Charles — where the Irish fleeing the potato famine were quarantined and, if they did not survive, buried — revealed 14 bodies including seven adults, three teenagers, and four children.
After two years of analysis, preliminary results were presented to the Irish community, who found them moving and "incredible," according to Victor Boyle, president of the Montreal Irish Monument Park Foundation.
Fractures, bacterial infections, chronic diseases and signs of malnutrition provide a window into the lives of Irish migrants in the mid-1800s, said bio-archaeologist Marine Puech at the Ethnoscop lab in Boucherville, Que.
Puech says most were from rural southwestern Ireland, and the lab was able to pinpoint their time of death to between August and September of 1847.
Ethnoscop has had the bones for two years now. After cleaning them and collecting soil samples, they were able to estimate sex and age of individuals and identify pathologies.
The results showed unspecified stress and diet deficiencies like iron as well as notable lead levels.
Some diseases, like typhus, don't leave marks on bones. But traces of malnutrition were found, which likely weakened people and made them more susceptible to illness.
Irish migrants fleeing the famine faced poor conditions at home, said Puech, and once on the ships, things did not improve. The vessels were often so full that it wasn't uncommon for more than 200 migrants to be in close quarters in humid summers — conditions that could easily have spread typhus. Many died at sea or shortly after arrival.
"It's incredible. First they found coffin remnants, artifacts, then bones. But even as bones, they were just bones," said Boyle.
"But to be shown at the laboratory, these bones being assembled as a full skeleton, hearing what their diet was, what part of Ireland they were probably from, now there's a person lying on that table."
Since the site was well-known, only a few steps away from the Black Rock monument marking a burial site for approximately 6,000 people, workers at the Réseau express métropolitain (REM) knew they would find remains.
The bodies were found in coffins that had been arranged to save space, often piled one on top of another.
The rail workers made sure to stay engaged in a dialogue with the Irish community while performing their excavations, said the REM's deputy director of environment, Elizabeth Boivin.
When Stephanie Gamble watched her mother model the first dress she made, smiling wide and walking an imaginary runway, she knew that was what she wanted to keep doing in her life.
'Tis the season for cuddling on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate and watching holiday movies. And for people in B.C.'s Interior, that can increasingly mean seeing their home communities on display.
Every year, snowy owls spread their wings and migrate down to the Prairies, where they enjoy access to plenty of rodent prey in vast open spaces.
This month has been a busy stretch at the Upper Room Food Bank in Charlottetown.
N.W.T. Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland says she has received the final report from an independent investigation into education bodies in the Dehcho region.
P.E.I.’s auditor general says he’s concerned and disappointed that the projected deficit has doubled what government initially estimated it would be — and he's urging the province to balance its budget.
A man found not criminally responsible for stabbing five people to death at a Calgary house party is getting more freedoms but not an absolute discharge.
A man has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting death of a Toronto mother outside a supervised consumption site in Leslieville.
Russian olive trees — sometimes known as silver berry or oleaster — are small, ornamental plants with silvery leaves and black bark, and small yellow flowers and silver fruit that look like miniature olives. They’re pretty, but they’re a problem.
The Yukon Legislative Assembly’s fall sitting ended on Thursday after the territorial government introduced and passed a supplementary budget.
A Canadian military counter-intelligence operative, who stands accused of passing sensitive information to Ukraine, was involved in an investigation into allegations that a leading Canadian defence journalist was a longtime Russian asset.
An Alberta panel aimed at finding ways the province can strengthen its autonomy has offered up seven recommendations, including options for referendum topics.
People won't be able to travel along B.C.'s Highway 3 without significant delays and detours over the holiday season, says the Ministry of Transportation.